Reset. Relax. Recharge.
That was the objective for the Tucson Sugar Skulls during its bye week last week. It was the first bye week for Tucson since their inaugural 2019 season.
Some players returned back to their hometowns, while coach and general manager Dixie Wooten spent the week with family β and food.
Wooten caught roughly 40 blue crabs and made a seafood boil that included crawfish, crab, shrimp and fish.
βThese guys get to go home, reflect and see the people who theyβre playing for, whether itβs their kids, their girlfriend, their wife, their mom and dad β whatever theyβre playing football for, they get to go home and look those people in the face and get rejuvenated for the season,β Wooten said. βWeβre glad to be off our bye week and weβre glad to be back at home.β
The Sugar Skulls (5-5) return from the bye on Saturday night, when they host the Bay Area Panthers (1-9) at Tucson Arena. Tucson sits in fourth place in the IFLβs Western Conference standings, behind the Arizona Rattlers (9-2), Northern Arizona Wranglers (9-2) and Duke City Gladiators (6-5). Tucson has a win over each of the three teams this season.
The final six regular-season games will be Tucsonβs βsecond season,β Wooten said.
βThe guys were excited to get back. β¦ Now they know, thereβs nine games left: Basically, six regular season games, two playoff games and a championship. Weβre looking at it like a nine-game season,β Wooten said. βWeβre calling it our βSecond Season.β So, weβre starting from Game 1. These guys are excited about it, because at the end of the day, they know the potential of what they can do on the field, they know the mistakes that they made are fixable, so theyβre ready to go.β
The Sugar Skulls want to carry some things with them, of course, like the second-highest scoring offense in the IFL β one thatβs averaging 51 points per game. Sugar Skulls star quarterback Daquan Neal has thrown for 1,351 yards and 34 touchdowns, and has been intercepted just once. Thatβs good.
The bad: Tucsonβs defense is allowing 52 points per game this season, which is second-to-last behind Saturday nightβs opponent. Three times, Tucson has squandered fourth-quarter leads. The Sugar Skullsβ most recent setback was a 34-32 loss to Northern Arizona. The defense logged two interceptions in the first half to double its season total, but Tucsonβs offense didnβt score in the fourth quarter and fumbled a lead to the Wranglers.
βWe know exactly what works, and what isnβt too well for us,β Neal said. βComing in for this second half, weβre trying to focus on our weaknesses, so we can become a more balanced team. Itβs a good time to get that started. β¦
βWe need to come out and play to our abilities. I feel like too often we were playing to the other teamβs energy and how good they are.β
Said Wooten: βThe bye week makes you look at the whole big picture as a coach.β
To sustain a certain level of urgency amongst his players, Wooten installed βgood-against-goodβ scrimmages between the starting offensive and defensive units at the end of practices, with prizes given to the winners.
Saturday, theyβll face a Panthers team thatβs lost nine straight games β including an 83-21 loss to the Rattlers last week.
βWe looked at that as like a challenge the Rattlers put out,β Wooten said. βItβs playoff football right now. You have to be playing your best by the time the playoffs start, so with the Rattlers doing that, we looked at that more as a challenge than Bay Area losing. β¦ We want to send a message, too.β
Still, βweβre expecting them to come out and give us everything,β Wooten said. βThey know their season is going to be over in 16 games, so they want to come out and put film up so they can get scouted. What we have to do is hit them in the mouth early and often.β
Extra points
Saturdayβs game will be a βred out.β Tucson will don red jerseys and fans are encouraged to wear red at Tucson Arena. A player autograph session will be held on the field after the game.
The Panthers have two Pac-12 products on their roster, linebacker DJ Calhoun (Arizona State) and offensive lineman Boss Tagaloa (UCLA).
Sugar Skulls star kick returner Benjamin Jones (leg), who is averaging a league-best 20.8 yards per return, is expected to be out again this week.
Tucson added linebacker Malcolm McCoy, who will replace Connor Taylor after he suffered a season-ending foot injury. The Upper Marlboro, Maryland, native starred at Bowie State.
